United Nations

State Department spokesman Marie Harf makes me barf. Harf is the deputy to State Department spokesman Jen Psaki; Psaki makes me barf too, even though her name lacks the clue of the perfect rhyme. Together the two of them give the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of twist. With them we can smile through the apocalypse. In the video below, Harf »

I don’t believe we have written about Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah, the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped, apparently by Hamas, while hitchhiking home from school on June 12. [UPDATE: Scott did write about it, see below.] Frankel, 16, is a dual Israeli-American citizen. The boys have not been seen since they were abducted and may or may not be alive. The kidnapping was generally viewed by »

At the UN, they are observing International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. I bet you thought every year at the UN was in solidarity with the “Palestinian people,” but no. Two thousand fourteen is special. Stop the UN — I want to get off. They are observing the International Year of Solidarity in a big way at UN headquarters in New York City. Anne Bayefsky writes to draw »

We have proudly featured the work of Robert Wistrich in three Power Line posts (the three posts are accessible here). Wistrich is the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the university’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism. He is also the leading academic authority on the history of anti-Semitism. Witness his monumental histories A Lethal Obsession: »

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has been working with UNESCO since 2011 on an exhibit titled “The People, the Book, the Land — 3,500 years of ties between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.” The exhibit was scheduled to open in Paris on Tuesday, but it was canceled last week by UNESCO’s Director General Irina Bokova. Why? Arab members of UNESCO wrote a letter claiming that the exhibit would »

If the second time is farce, what is the 19th? The U.N.’s “Conference of the Parties” is holding its 19th session of global warming talks in Warsaw. The purpose of these talks is to produce agreements. The purpose of the agreements is to transfer your money to someone else. The Warsaw event was scheduled to end yesterday, but no agreement had been reached–the horror!–and it was feared the talks might »

The modern “environmental” movement has little or nothing to do with the environment, and a great deal to do with the real green stuff: money. One hundred thirty-two governments are in a huff because their latest attempt at extortion has failed: Poor countries pulled out of the United Nations climate talks during a fight over transferring wealth from richer countries to fight global warming. Wait! How would giving corrupt third »

With all the fun watching Obamacare collapse, we’ve hardly had time to take note of the climate change circus tent collapsing around its tentpoles at the latest UN climate summit taking place over in Poland right now. First, Japan has essentially said “Goodbye to all that” in announcing that it is repudiating its Kyoto Protocol target of a 6 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels (a target »

The U.N. is holding its latest global warming conclave in Poland. Big mistake. Yesterday more than 50,000 Poles turned out in Warsaw, in conjunction with National Independence Day, for an anti-U.N. rally. David Rothbard, president of Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow, addressed the crowd and a national television audience. Anthony Watts reports on the inspiring event: As more than 50,000 enthusiastic Poles gathered in downtown Warsaw on Monday to celebrate »

While the rest of us tuned out of the Iranian production starring Iranian President Hassan Rouhani following Rouhani’s speech before the UN General Assembly last week, Claudia Rosett stayed with it. She notes: With Iran pushing toward nuclear breakout ability at home, while peddling what some have dubbed “charm” abroad, there were plenty of odd moments as Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani swept through the United Nations in New York last »

I don’t trust and don’t want to rely on news accounts of important speeches such as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s and President Obama’s at the UN last week, or Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s at the UN today. I linked to the full text version of both Rouahani’s and Obama’s speeches last week and took a look at them here (Rouahani) and here (Obama). The Office of the Israeli Prime Minister »

It requires little discussion to show that the U.N. approved resolution on chemical weapons in Syria is a joke. As Brett Schaefer and Baker Spring point out, the resolution is toothless because it fails to establish a direct enforcement mechanism for assuring the complete application of Chemical Weapons Convention requirements in Syria. The resolution provides that in the event of non-compliance with its terms, the Security Council will impose undefined »

President Obama addressed the United Nations today. It’s a fool’s errand if you think about it, and Obama’s remarks were duly foolish. He began by assuring the world of America’s near-pacifism and lack of seriousness when it comes to fighting terrorism. Obama cited our retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan, new limitations on the use of drones, and his “diligent” work to close Gitmo. The world already understands how ineffectual you »

Barack Obama fancies himself some kind of a deliverer and he has indeed delivered us. He has delivered us into a parallel universe. In this parallel universe the prince of peace serves as the president of the United States and argues in favor of a simulacrum of war. He disparages the United Nations as a fount of meaningless twaddle. Circumventing the United Nations can be a matter of high principle »

I have been trying to keep up with the best articulation of arguments for and against our taking military action against the Syrian regime. I find myself agreeing with arguments on both sides, including Paul Mirengoff’s here, though not strongly. I’m ambivalent. President Obama got us into this mess with his big mouth. For a handy reminder, check out this New York Times account of how we got here. “We »

Late next month the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will begin releasing its massive Fifth Assessment Report (AR5 in the trade), starting with the report of Working Group I, on the science of climate change. The reports of Working Groups II and III will dribble out in 2014. In previous assessment reports, the entire report with the findings of all three working groups came out at once. I »

In 2003, Samantha Power wrote in the New Republic: We need: a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored, or permitted by the United States. . . Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the sins of their predecessors. When Willie Brandt went down on one knee in the Warsaw ghetto, his gesture was gratifying to World War II »